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Most Popular Baby Names in Europe: Eleven National Rankings Compared

For eleven European countries, the names given to newborns are counted and published every year: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom, where the figures cover England and Wales. This page puts those rankings side by side and asks three questions. Which names do the countries share, which countries name their children alike, and are the lists growing more alike over time?

All figures refer to each country's most recent year: 2025, or 2024 for Spain and Italy. They were checked on 3 October 2026. Germany's list holds only ten names per sex, so Germany appears in the table of number ones but not in the comparisons, where its short list would distort the counts. How each figure was produced is explained at the end.

The Number One in Each Country

Noah is the most common boys' name in six of the eleven countries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. In Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands he has held first place in every year since 2021, the first year on this site. No girls' name leads in more than three countries. The eleven countries have eight different number ones, and only Sofia and Emma lead in more than one country.

The girls' side also changes faster. In six of the eleven countries, the most recent year brought a new girls' number one. For boys, that happened in three.

The Names Europe Shares

Counting how many of the ten compared countries have a name in their top 50 gives a short list of names that cross borders. Olivia, Sofia and Noah are in all ten. Emma is the most consistent at the very top: she appears in eight lists and is in the top ten in every one of them. Luna shows the opposite pattern, present in seven lists without reaching the top ten in any.

Different spellings count separately here, as they do in the official lists: Sofia and Sophia are two names, and so are Lucas and Lukas. Accents are ignored, because Spain's statistics office writes all names without them.

Girls' names in the most top-50 lists

Boys' names in the most top-50 lists

Which Countries Name Their Children Alike

Each country has 100 names in its top 50 lists, 50 for girls and 50 for boys. For every pair of countries, the table counts how many of those 100 appear in both.

Austria and Switzerland are the closest pair, with 46 names in common. The three Scandinavian countries form a group of their own, each pair sharing between 36 and 39 names. At the other end, Italy and Sweden share only 8.

Most alike

Least alike

Averaged over all its pairs, Switzerland shares the most names with the others. Its single national list spans German, French and Italian-speaking regions. Italy shares the fewest, about 15 names with each other country on average.

Are Europe's Names Becoming More Alike?

It is often said that parents across Europe increasingly choose the same names. Over the years covered here, the rankings do not show it. Across the ten countries compared, two countries' lists had 21.3 names in common on average in 2021, 21.6 in 2022, 21.6 in 2023 and 21.2 in 2024. For the eight countries that have already published 2025, the average moved from 24.8 in 2021 to 24.5 in 2025.

Five years is a short window, and a longer series might tell a different story. Within this one, the lists are about as different from each other as they were at the start. Individual names do travel, as the next section shows, but others retreat at the same time, and the overall overlap has stayed where it was.

Names Rising and Falling Across Borders

Comparing 2021 with each country's most recent year shows which names are moving in several countries at once. A name counts as rising in a country if it climbed at least five places or entered the top 50, and as falling if it dropped at least five places or left it.

Girls' names rising in the most countries

• Sofia in seven countries: Austria #43 → #30; Switzerland #7 → #1; Denmark #12 → #2; France #40 → #29; England & Wales #23 → #17; Netherlands #37 → #13; Sweden not in the top 50 → #47
• Olivia in four countries: Austria #23 → #17; Spain #12 → #7; France #31 → #19; Italy not in the top 50 → #48
• Aurora in three countries: Switzerland #37 → #11; England & Wales not in the top 50 → #39; Norway #25 → #14
• Ayla in three countries: Switzerland not in the top 50 → #38; England & Wales not in the top 50 → #42; Netherlands not in the top 50 → #47
• Eva in three countries: Switzerland #35 → #30; Denmark not in the top 50 → #42; Italy not in the top 50 → #50

Girls' names falling in the most countries

• Julia in five countries: Austria #30 → out of the top 50; Switzerland #16 → #43; France #14 → #20; Norway #50 → out of the top 50; Sweden #22 → #35
• Luna in four countries: Denmark #8 → #14; France #28 → #33; England & Wales #35 → out of the top 50; Sweden #24 → #29
• Sara in four countries: Austria #37 → out of the top 50; Switzerland #32 → #45; Spain #13 → #19; Norway #32 → #43
• Anna in three countries: Switzerland #11 → #16; France #7 → #15; Netherlands #16 → #21
• Elisa in three countries: Austria #33 → #41; Switzerland #42 → out of the top 50; Italy #38 → #46

Boys' names rising in the most countries

• Noah in five countries: Austria #10 → #1; Denmark #13 → #4; Spain not in the top 50 → #40; France #8 → #2; Italy #42 → #23
• Luca in four countries: Denmark #49 → #28; Spain #28 → #13; England & Wales #28 → #4; Netherlands #9 → #3
• Theo in four countries: Austria #26 → #18; Switzerland not in the top 50 → #14; Denmark #16 → #7; Norway #38 → #22
• Adam in three countries: Austria #50 → #33; Switzerland #36 → #17; England & Wales #44 → #26
• Gabriel in three countries: Austria #37 → #28; Spain #37 → #30; Norway #49 → #44

Boys' names falling in the most countries

• Benjamin in seven countries: Austria #30 → #41; Switzerland #39 → out of the top 50; Denmark #50 → out of the top 50; England & Wales #42 → out of the top 50; Netherlands #18 → #30; Norway #30 → #48; Sweden #29 → #45
• Lucas in six countries: Switzerland #44 → out of the top 50; Denmark #11 → #17; France #10 → #19; England & Wales #22 → #32; Netherlands #2 → #7; Sweden #22 → #36
• Alexander in four countries: Austria #12 → #17; Denmark #28 → #47; England & Wales #27 → #40; Sweden #23 → out of the top 50
• David in four countries: Austria #5 → #11; Switzerland #16 → #31; Spain #18 → #25; Netherlands #40 → #48
• Julian in four countries: Austria #15 → #23; Switzerland #17 → #39; Netherlands #24 → #37; Norway #50 → out of the top 50

Names That Stay at Home

Every country keeps names that rank nowhere else. The table counts the names in each country's top 50 lists that appear in none of the other nine countries compared, with the three highest-placed girls' and boys' names among them.

Spelling plays a part in these counts. Theodore in England and Wales and Theodor in Austria, for instance, count as two different names. Accents do not: Léo in France and Leo elsewhere count as one.

How This Comparison Works

• Every ranking comes from the body that publishes it for its country. The sources are named on each country page and on the about page.
• Each country contributes its top 50 girls' and top 50 boys' names for its most recent year: 2025, or 2024 for Spain and Italy.
• Germany is left out of the comparisons because its list holds only ten names per sex.
• The United Kingdom figures come from the Office for National Statistics and cover England and Wales only.
• Names are compared by spelling, ignoring capital letters and accents, since Spain's statistics office writes names without accents. Variants such as Sofia and Sophia count as separate names.
• Where a source gives two names the same rank, they are numbered one after the other, as everywhere on this site.
• The country pages update automatically when a source publishes a new year. This page is an analysis of the figures available on 3 October 2026.

Official Rankings for Each Country

Every country below has its own page with the complete ranking, the meaning and origin of each name, and the rankings of previous years.